Calgary - Alberta - Canada - January 16 - 2015 - I'm just astounded that the slump on the economy is blamed on the still new government in Alberta (and similarly the very new Federal government). The writing was on the wall many years ago. Alberta's previous governments giving away the oil patch and wasting away any money they did take in, and not planning for the future. Even worse, the Federal government of the day drank the koolaid and become enablers and sucked the rest of the country along for the ride (barely any effort or diversification elsewhere). The rest of the country got trickle effects from all the action in Alberta, when the times were good (and paid some of the highest prices for gas at the same time, to boot), and is now suffering since the result of the focus on the oil patch was to make our dollar a "petro" dollar!

So, don't blame the messenger in this case. It's like many other areas, the risk takers see the signs, and take off, leaving the rest to take the blame. To add insult to injury, they come back and start blaming the new team from the sidelines for the mess that was left behind,claiming that they would be better stewards of the economy. Such horse shit! Canadians need to grow up and be informed.

Here is some food for thought for Albertans and others that pander to the corporations and the ultra rich: Norway’s government Pension Fund Global was created in 1990 to make the most of the windfall of striking oil in the North Sea. Companies looking to extract Norwegian oil pay handsomely for the privilege. In Norway, companies drilling for North Sea oil pay a 78% tax rate on income, compared with a corporate tax rate of 28%. As a result, the bulging sovereign wealth fund, managed by the Norwegian government, is set to top $1 trillion within this decade.

At the end of 2013, its value stood at 5.2 trn kroner. That’s $903.4 billion or about $1 million per citizen. Norwegians (the WHOLE country), share the benefits of this wealth across the board, while planning for a future where there may be no oil and still manage to have other diversified industries.

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Fort McMurray's workers desperate to find jobs during economic slump

Fort McMurray - Alberta - Canada - January 18 - 2016 - Nearly 20 trucks, lined up near Tim Hortons in downtown Fort McMurray last Friday as temperatures hovered around –25 C. The cold kept most people in their vehicles, but Nabil Abadi, a Canadian worker, rolled down the window of his truck long enough to describe the change he has seen in the city as oil prices plunged.

"Everybody is complaining. The barber and flooring guys. People that work on the sites. Everybody is complaining," he said. "Everything else has slowed down except Timmy's." Abadi installs flooring in homes and when money is tight, people don't build new properties or invest in renovations, he said. "It is pretty scary right now," he said."If it stays slow, I am packing up and leaving."

Though oil production in the province was actually up five per cent last year, companies have streamlined operations and require fewer workers.The Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers said in its most recent update that 40,000 jobs have been directly lost due to plummeting oil prices and tens of thousands more have been affected indirectly by less money being spent in the wider economy.

In 2014, Fort McMurray's new $250-million airport terminal opened to accommodate increasing air traffic and while more than one million people passed through the terminal last year, passenger numbers were down 16 per cent. The biggest drop occurred with charter flights, where numbers were down 50 per cent, according to airport officials. "We can pretty much survive another 10 per cent downturn without doing anything crazy, like raising our rates and charges," said Scott Clements, CEO and president of Fort McMurray's airport. But he said declining demand has led to fewer flights going in and out of the airport. The flight between Fort McMurray and Red Deer has already been cancelled and come February, the Fort McMurray to Kelowna flight will be suspended as well. "There are 35,000 trips a year of workers coming back and forth to Fort McMurray and when the trigger happens and the economy comes around Kelowna will be re-established." The airport has also lost its daily flight to Denver and its only flight to Mexico, but Clements said that has more to do with the poor Canadian dollar which has also been driven down in part by the slump in oil prices.

Fort McMurray's housing market has also taken a hit. For sale signs dot residential streets and have become much more frequent ,particularly in a new subdivision recently built in the north end of the city. According to the Fort McMurray Real Estate Board, sales of single-family detached homes in 2015 were down roughly 41 per cent compared to 2014 and the houses that are selling are going for less. The average sale price has dropped more than six per cent over the same period but price tags in the area are still sizable. Recent figures from the real estate board put the average price of a detached home around $700,000.

On the rental side, the vacancy rate has risen to nearly 30 per cent, but the cost of renting in Fort McMurray is still the highest in Alberta, which makes it difficult for those laid off workers to survive.

Mark Mullin, a welder, said he finds himself doing odd jobs where he can. He's become a regular at the Alberta Works employment centre in the city where up to 400 people visit every day. Some meet with counsellors for career advice but Mullin was one of the many last week who were seated behind a computer and huddled around a bulletin board looking at job listings. "It's a highly competitive racket," he said.Mullin had been working at Syncrude's Aurora site but his last contract ended in late October. He hasn't been able to find anything stable since. He's been doing odd jobs to "keep the wolf away" but he hasn't had much luck. "You can't be too fussy about your line of work anymore."

The people seated around him were in agreement, including John Javier, who used to work as a heavy-duty mechanic but was laid off last month. That morning, he had an interview at Earl's Restaurant for a job as a server and laughed at his potential career change. "I told them I would trade my coveralls for like a nice blazer, khakis or maybe a clean pair of clothes, instead of dirty coveralls for a change. " The current slump is Javier's first experience with an oilpatch downturn . He moved here from Toronto just last year.

Mullin, on the other hand, has worked in Fort McMurray for 40 years. "This isn't the first oil slump on record, and people seem to grin and bear it.So we'll muddle through like all good Canadians."

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Death toll now at 2: Worker badly burned in Alberta oilsands explosion dies

Edmonton - Alberta - January 26 - 2016 - Occupational Health and Safety says a 30-year-old worker who was critically injured in an explosion at an oilsands upgrader in northern Alberta has died.

​Dave Williams, pictured above, has died after he was badly burned in an explosion at the Nexen Long Lake facility in Fort McMurray. The critically injured man had been transported to the burn unit at an Edmonton hospital, where his family from Nova Scotia stayed by his side. This is the second death resulting from the explosion.

On January 15, a 52-year-old employee Drew Foster, 52, pictured below with his family, was killed in the blast and he was pronounced dead at the scene.

The blast occurred at Communist China's Calgary- based Nexen's (TSX:NXY) Long Lake plant near Fort McMurray on January 15.​

​A Nexen official said at the time that the two men were doing maintenance work. No one else was injured. The blast occurred in a part of the upgrader that breaks hydrocarbon molecules into smaller pieces to make a lighter oil product for shipping. They thin the tar by adding diluents such as gasoline. Not that difficult to understand. Nexen Energy ULC was acquired by China's state-owned CNOOC Ltd. more than two years ago.There has been no comment from Communist China.

​October 15 - 2015 - A pipeline rupture at the plant last summer leaked five million litres of a mixture of bitumen, water and sand into muskeg. Documents show the Alberta Energy Regulator's investigation into the spill continues, even though the deadline to determine what caused the spill.